FDA approves genetically engineered potatoes, apples as safe

[Xithras]

28. Neither of these are the "bad" kinds of GMO's. Hold those jerking knees.

In the case of the apples, they identified the gene that produces the polyphenols that turn apples brown. Once the gene was identified, they located varieties of apples that produce the polyphenols at much lower rates and transferred the genes from those apples to other apple species. This is fundamentally the same kind of same-species crossbreeding that farmers have been using to create new varieties for nearly ten thousand years. The only difference is that the researchers transferred the genes in a laboratory instead of spending years crossbreeding varieties in a greenhouse to get the traits they want.

This is a fundamentally different thing than researchers inserting artificial genes to make crops resist certain poisons, or inserting genes from fish to make a tomato taste better.